‘Brilliant’ Coventry delight Mark Robins in final St Andrew’s outing

Coventry boss Mark Robins labelled his side’s 6-1 final-day drubbing of Millwall a “dream ending” to their two seasons in their temporary home of St Andrew’s.

The Sky Blues rounded off their ground-share with Birmingham in style, with six different players netting as Coventry recorded a highest league finish in 15 years, 16th in the Sky Bet Championship.

Jordan Shipley, Dom Hyam, the impressive Callum O’Hare, Matty James and Tyler Walker were all on target, while Sky Blues skipper Kyle McFadzean scored at both ends.

Coventry will return home to the Ricoh Arena next season after ironing out the club’s issues with the ground’s owners, but Robins admitted their stay at St Andrew’s had been amazingly successful.

They achieved promotion from League One in their first season there and comfortable safety in the second tier this time around, with Robins beaming: “It’s a dream ending.

“We were brilliant. We moved the ball well and we were clinical with our finishing. It was a really good way for us to sign off at St Andrew’s.

“While it’s not in Coventry, it’s not our home, it’s been the second best option for us and we’ve won some really important games here and played some really good football.

“It’s been a brilliant couple of seasons here and to sign off from St Andrew’s with a win and performance like that is just what we wanted to do, it gives everybody that feel-good factor.

“We move back to Coventry now and we’re looking forward to that, it’s what we need.

“I wanted a good performance to finish the season off and I got it in spades, it was outstanding.

“It gives us a platform. We need to move things forward, if you don’t you’ll go backwards – we need to work hard to keep moving forward and get the balance right.”

Having trailed 2-0 at half-time, McFadzean’s own goal offered Millwall a route back into the game, but those hopes were washed away with three Coventry strikes in the space of eight minutes.

Their humiliation could have been greater if not for a couple of smart saves from goalkeeper Bartosz Bialkowski, although they secured a top-half finish in 11th despite the defeat.

Lions boss Gary Rowett said: “It was a disappointing way to end the season. It wasn’t a performance that showed our defensive resilience or character, it was everything but.

“And certainly one or two players, on the back of that, need to step up next season because we will be a better side, we will recruit well in the summer.

“What I need to do as a manager is wake up tomorrow morning, not think about today’s game and think about the other 45, and see what we need to do to become better.

“There was not enough leadership out there today, not enough fight. I’m not happy with it and it was quite an embarrassing game.

“I thought if we’d have defended with a modicum of decency, which we have done for most of the season, we could have got something out of the game.

“We’ve had two solid top-half finishes – to finish eighth and 11th in a very, very difficult division, I don’t think we can be overly disappointed with that and I know we will be a lot stronger next year.”